Member News

AACN Members and related stakeholders are encouraged to submit articles of interest, research awards and opportunities, member school announcements, new partnerships or grant-funded initiatives, and resources, to the AACN for inclusion on the AACN's website and AACN News Watch weekly newsletter.

Submissions must be received Monday at 12:00 pm (ET) in order to appear in that week’s issue. Send your article via email to Bill O’Connor, AACN’s Editorial Director at boconnor@aacnnursing.org.

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February 2023

Dr. Bernadette Melnyk will step aside as dean of The Ohio State University College of Nursing on June 30, 2023. Dr. Melnyk, who also serves as the nation’s first vice president for health promotion and chief wellness officer (CWO) at an institution of higher education, will continue full-time in the VP/CWO role at Ohio State. Read more >>
Dr. Patricia Thomas is the new acting dean at Grand Valley State University’s Kirkhof College of Nursing (KCON), effective January 6, 2023. Dr. Thomas previously served as the associate dean for faculty affairs at Wayne State University’s (WSU) College of Nursing. Before joining WSU’s faculty, she served as the assistant dean and as an associate professor, then later as associate dean at KCON from 2016-2019. Read more >>
The University of Rochester (UR) Medical Center and School of Nursing has established a program to provide a tuition-free education for 33 nursing students per year. The UR Nursing Scholars Program will cover 100% of tuition costs for Accelerated Bachelor’s in Nursing (ABSN) students at the university, after passing their NCLEX-RN® licensure exam and in exchange for committing to work at participating UR Medicine facilities for 3 years after graduation. Read more >>

January 2023

Dr. Patricia Bruckenthal has been named the new dean of Stony Brook University’s (SBU) School of Nursing. Dr. Bruckenthal became a clinical instructor in the Department of Neurology in SBU’s School of Medicine in 1989 and later joined the School of Nursing as a clinical assistant professor, where she has held a range of roles over the years. She became chair of the Department of Graduate Studies in Advanced Practice Nursing in 2010, and in 2016 was promoted as associate dean for Research and Innovation and professor in the School of Nursing. Last year she was named interim dean of the school before her appointment as dean. Read more >>
Dr. Kristen Abbott-Anderson is the new dean at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire School of Nursing, effective January 3, 2023. Dr. Abbott-Anderson most recently was director of the Glen Taylor Nursing Institute for Family and Society and a professor in the College of Allied Health and Nursing at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She succeeds Dean Emerita Dr. Linda Young, who retired in June after more than a decade of leadership at UW-Eau Claire. Read more >>
The Florida Board of Governors has approved two Linking Industry to Nursing Education proposals to enhance collaboration between the University of South Florida Health College of Nursing and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Foundation and Moffitt Cancer Center. Both collaborations will allow nursing students to gain increased access to high-fidelity simulation training. Read more >>
The Tennessee Department of Health has awarded a $1.3 million grant to East Tennessee State University’s College of Nursing and College of Pharmacy to provide the COVID-19 vaccine to patients in socially vulnerable areas of Northeast Tennessee via clinics in rural communities as well as a new mobile vaccination unit. Read more >>

December 2022

Dr. Barbara Bates-Jensen, professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), School of Nursing, has been awarded more than $3 million for a new R01 grant by the National Institute of Nursing Research to conduct a 4-year pragmatic, multi-site study of pressure injuries in nursing homes. This study will be conducted across eight nursing homes and will examine the use of subepidermal moisture assessment results as a cue for nursing staff to initiate pressure injury prevention. Read more >>
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has awarded a three-year, $1.5 million grant to a partnership of The Ohio State University, the University of California San Diego, and the American Nurses Association to determine the best intervention strategy for preventing nurse suicide. The project is led by Dr. Bernadette Melnyk, vice president for health promotion, university chief wellness officer, and dean of the College of Nursing at Ohio State, and Dr. Judy Davidson, nurse scientist at the University of California San Diego. Read more >>
George Mason University’s School of Nursing, in the College of Public Health, and MedStar Washington Hospital Center have established the Future Nurse Program to prepare nurses for clinical practice and to address critical nursing workforce shortages in the region. MedStar Health will cover in-state tuition for Accelerated Second Degree BSN students accepted into the program for students who agree to work for three years as a full-time licensed registered nurse at MedStar Washington Hospital Center after graduation. Read more >>
The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) School of Nursing is partnering with Mississippi State University (MSU) to give students an additional nursing degree pathway with dual degrees. The program allows completion of an MSU degree in interdisciplinary studies alongside a UMMC nursing degree. Read more >>
The University of Rhode Island (URI) has appointed Dr. Barbara E. Wolfe as its new provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. Dr. Wolfe, an internationally recognized expert on psychiatric and mental health nursing and eating disorders, has served as dean of the URI College of Nursing since 2016. Read more >>
The Lauder Foundation has presented a gift of $10 million to the Hunter College School of Nursing. The gift creates the Evelyn H. Lauder Nursing Fund, which will fund salaries and research to attract faculty, provide scholarships for students, and purchase and maintain rapidly changing nursing technology. Read more >>
The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention has elected Dr. Bernadette Melnyk as its new vice-chair of the Board of Directors for the 2022-2023. Dr. Melnyk, who serves as vice president for health promotion, university chief wellness officer, and College of Nursing dean at The Ohio State University, will become chair of the Board during the 2023-2024 term. Read more >>
Dr. Lisa O’Connor, dean of the Quinnipiac University School of Nursing, will step down from her position on June 30, 2023. She joined the Quinnipiac faculty as an assistant professor in 2003, and she succeeded founding dean Dr. Jean Lange in 2018. Dr. O’Connor will continue as a faculty member at Quinnipiac. Read more >>
Dr. Thomas Kippenbrock, professor in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing at the University of Arkansas, recently received the American Association of Men in Nursing's Luther Christman Award for his service to the organization and distinguished career in nursing. Read more >>
The University of Central Florida (UCF) has announced a $10 million donation from The Dr. Phillips Charities to support the College of Nursing’s new building, which will help UCF graduate more nurses and combat the nation’s nursing shortage while fostering more innovation and collaboration. Read more >>

November 2022

A University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences partnership involving the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Centers on Aging, College of Nursing, and the Arkansas Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence has received $550,000 in awards for programs that address food insecurity and suicide among older adults. The Arkansas Nurse-Led Academic Community Partnership has a goal of identifying high rates of risk for food insecurity, suicide, and social isolation in the state, particularly among marginalized older adults. Read more >>
Texas Christian University (TCU) has received a $1 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to prioritize research topics to advance racial health equity. Dr. Dru Riddle, associate professor of Professional Practice in Nurse Anesthesia and director of TCU’s Center for Translational Research, will lead a collaboration of investigators and institutions in a comprehensive effort to listen to stakeholders and communities, perform landscape analyses of existing resources, and prioritize next steps for systematic reviews with the goal of reducing health disparities. Read more >>
The state government of Hawai’i has released $1.75 million for 39 new instructor positions to help address that state’s severe nursing faculty shortage and to support University of Hawai'i (UH) nursing programs statewide. The initiative will help UH graduate more nurses to meet the workforce demands of the state. Read more >>
On October 13, the University of Maryland School of Nursing welcomed representatives from the Maryland Community Health Resources Commission (CHRC) and from the West Baltimore community to celebrate the awarding of a $2.4 million Pathways for Health Equity Grant from CHRC for the West Baltimore RICH (Reducing Isolation and Inequities in Cardiovascular Health) Collaborative. Read more >>
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing Professor Nancy Reynolds has been elected vice chair of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. The organization sup